Collaborative Learning
A teaching and learning strategy for students to learn together, from each other, through reflection. Collaborative Learning can support and nurture a diversity of members and learning needs. To enable learning in communities.
Collaborative Learning (CL) supports student success in many ways:
- Development of relevant future (professional + sustainability) skills[8].
- Supports student motivation [1] and wellbeing[6,7].
- Increases self-efficacy [2] and self-esteem [3].
- Encourages an inclusive mindset and builds understanding of diversity [3].
- Improvement of students’ cognitive performance, meta-cognition [4], and critical thinking [5].
Collaborative Learning provides many opportunities for teachers too:
- Larger, complex and more interesting projects could be completed by students when working collaboratively.
- Your workload can be reduced by enabling students to resolve problems with and learn from each other
- Allows you to be more inclusive of different learning styles and encourage participation.
- Groupwork can address practical limitations such as lab equipment, or grading capacity.
Some Learning Objectives that align with Collaborative Learning:
- Reasoning, reflecting, and forming a judgment.
- Co-operating and communicating with others.
Wellbeing, learning and human connection are intrinsically linked.
Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer
Essential components of Collaborative Learning
- Shared emotional connections
- Positive & mutual Interdependence
- Promotive Interaction to maximize learning
- Interpersonal and group skills
- Individual accountability and personal responsibility
- Group processing
Based on [6] and [9]
Collaborative Learning Tools for Students & Teachers
This is an open-source compilation for TU Delft students and staff based on various offerings, learnings and sources from literature and TU Delft. The intention of the toolkit is to support students and teachers to engage in (and facilitate) Collaborative Learning, amongst peers.
Get in touch with the contact people mentioned per tool to develop any of them further. If you'd like to contribute to this toolkit:
Workshops & Programmes
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Developed by experts from Centre for Language and Academic Skills (CLAS/ ITAV). The workshops and assignments cover various topics through the course of groupwork, from team values and roles, to team dynamics and diversity.
Do contact them to further develop and curate appropriate workshops for specific programmes/ courses. Learn More
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The workshop prompts dialogue and reflection around different topics of collaboration such as aligning expectations, motivation, etc. Often not explicitly discussed, especially during graduation or research journey.
Students and supervisors also discuss each others' perspectives in a given (hypothetical) conflicting group situation, in a safe and facilitated environment.
Contact Annie Aggarwal (a.aggarwal@tudelft.nl) to develop a workshop!
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The session prompts reflection on one's individual identity and social position, and sheds light on how intersectional identities play out in the educational context. The sessions highlights the value of developing skills for collaboration, both for learning, and its social value in terms of fostering (or hindering) inclusion and preventing exclusion. A discussion is prompted on integrating these skills into their classroom/ teamwork/ or other collaborations at TU Delft.
Currently in the Pilot phase, being tested in different contexts. Sign-Up for Pilot workshops opening soon.
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A kick-off day for students to get to know their cohort in smaller groups; and decide upon the nature and purpose of continued engagement. Maybe supported by regular bi-weekly or fewer sessions on different relevant transferable skills by experts across TU Delft. Peer to peer share and learn sessions amongst students and graduating supervisors have also been a significant and relevant part of the programme.
Learnings from project: Shaping Successful (MSc.) Graduation Journeys.
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Textbook for the minor Collaborative Science for Biomedical Breakthroughs which guides students in learning skills in collaboration, communication, research and reflection while they do a transdisciplinary research project. It focuses on explicitly teaching many of the implicit skills scientific professionals are expected to have but rarely explicitly taught. This textbook is a collaborative effort including participation from teachers and staff from Applied Sciences, TPM, Industrial Design and the Erasmus MC.
If you have questions about the textbook or minor, please email minor-csbb@tudelft.nl.
Tips & Tools
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In classroom and within group work. The tips are provided to stimulate, support and guide collaboration for learning amongst students. These are developed based on student and teachers experiences at TU Delft, and to address common challenges often faced in teamwork and collaboration.
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The proposed tool provides a low threshold means to keep track of on one’s interactions, and support groups discussions to improve upon the teams' dynamics, not only for better results, but also fruitful alignment and healthier connections.(Scores generated may also support assessment of team collaboration and process)
Development in progress.
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Developed by Career & Counselling Services, the course includes tips, videos, templates, quizzes and articles on various aspects of teamwork. Ranging from conditions for cooperation, phases of teamwork, making decisions and feedback to pitfalls in collaboration and diversity.
Click to access BrightSpace course. Open to enroll for TU Delft students and staff.
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An easy document with inspiration and concrete tips for an inclusive organization for LGBTI+ people. Written with and by LGBTI+ people, in collaboration with associations.
References & Resources
- [1]Hrastinski, S. (2008). What is online learner participation? A literature review. Computers and Education/Computers & Education, 51(4), 1755-1765. doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2008.05.005
- [2]Huang, Y., & Wu, T. (2010). A systematical approach for learner group composition by utilizing U-learning portfolio. IET International Conference on Frontier Computing. Theory, Technologies and Applications, 2010 P. 210 – 214. doi.org/10.1049/cp.2010.0563
- [3]Laal, M., & Ghodsi, S. M. (2012). Benefits of collaborative learning. Procedia: Social & Behavioral Sciences, 31, 486–490. doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.091
- [4]Kumar, R. R. (2017). The effect of collaborative learning on enhancing student achievement: A meta-analysis (Doctoral dissertation, Concordia University).
- [5]Wang, X.-M., Hwang, G.-J., Liang, Z.-Y., & Wang, H.-Y. (2017). Enhancing Students’ Computer Programming Performances, Critical Thinking Awareness and Attitudes towards Programming: An Online Peer-Assessment Attempt. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 20(4), 58–68. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26229205
- [6]Van Den Bergh, M. (2022). A community-based learning program to improve wellbeing and design student success. Proceedings of DRS. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.761
- [7]Van Der Bijl-Brouwer, M. (2021a, December 14). Learning is joy — wellbeing challenges in pandemic higher education. Medium. https://medium.com/@miekevanderbijl/learning-is-joy-wellbeing-challenges-in-pandemic-higher-education-f74aaae67ec4
- [8]Van Der Bijl-Brouwer, M. (2021, December 15). The university as a flock of birds? — learning our way forward together to promote wellbeing. Medium. https://medium.com/@miekevanderbijl/the-university-as-a-flock-of-birds-learning-our-way-forward-together-to-promote-wellbeing-67f2e021ba2e
- [9]Roger, T., & Johnson, D. W. (1994). An overview of cooperative learning. Creativity and collaborative learning, 14(2), 1-21.
- Pirker, J., Riffnaller-Schiefer, M., & Gütl, C. (2014). Motivational active learning: engaging university students in computer science education. In Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Innovation & Technology in Computer Science Education (Pp. 297-302). doi.org/10.1145/2591708.2591750
- Wang, Y., Li, H., Feng, Y., Jiang, Y., & Liu, Y. (2012). Assessment of programming language learning based on peer code review model: Implementation and experience report. Computers and Education/Computers & Education, 59(2), 412–422. doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.01.007
- Falkner, K., & Falkner, N. J. (2012). Supporting and structuring “contributing student pedagogy” in Computer Science curricula. Computer Science Education, 22(4), 413–443. doi.org/10.1080/08993408.2012.727713
- Wang, X., & Hwang, G. (2017b). A problem posing-based practicing strategy for facilitating students’ computer programming skills in the team-based learning mode. Educational Technology Research and Development, 65(6), 1655–1671. doi.org/10.1007/s11423-017-9551-0
Other Resources:
- Inspiration from LDE Minor on Collaborative Science. https://interactivetextbooks.citg.tudelft.nl/csbb-textbook/intro.html
- The tips on team assignments and tracking teamwork are based on the book “Hoe maak ik een toetsopdracht? / How to asses students through assignments” by Evelyn van de Veen.
Cover image from Freepik.